By Ray Peace
Knox Historical Society is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2025.
Current president, Ray Peace, who has been a member for twenty of those years, said the society started because local residents realised how much of their local history was being lost.
“Howard McComb, member of a long-standing local family, first came up with the idea,” Ray said.
“He started collecting as much of the area’s history as could.”
Howard gave a speech to the Bayswater Progress Association on 16 April 1964 at the old Bayswater Progress Hall, on Station Street, on the subject of early public maps of the district.
The upshot was a public meeting on 14 May 1965 at the same venue to form a Shire of Knox Historical Society.
The Society collected material related to the heritage of the municipality of Knox, including the former Shire of Ferntree Gully, the Shire of Berwick, and local Indigenous history.
Early meetings were held in members’ houses for years.
A public campaign was mounted in 1966 to save Millers homestead, which was acquired by the City of Knox in 1971.
The society started its own newsletter in 1969.
Early KHS members included Tony Scollary, Graham Hansen, and Chris Boddy.
“Graham has since retired, but Chris is still an active member,” Ray said.
“They did an incredible job. Without them, much of the early history of Knox would have been lost.”
The society moved to ‘Ambleside’ homestead, gifted to the City of Knox in 1975 following the death of Oliver David, in 1977.
Still at the same location almost fifty years later, the homestead and museum now receives over one thousand visitors a year, including tour groups, hundreds of school children, and residents of local retirement homes.
KHS members will be attending a formal sixtieth anniversary function later in the year.
‘Ambleside’ homestead and museum, at 3 Olivebank Road, Ferntree Gully, is open to the public between 10am and 1pm on Thursday and Friday, and between 1pm and 4pm on Sunday.
For details, phone: 9758 6722 or email: khs@relics.com
